This is BS. Now the UN wants to stop tobacco advertising on the net. While I don't smoke, people should have the right to choose to smoke. I will allow advertisers to run tobacco ads on my sites "regardless of what the UN says." This is the beginning of an attempt to regulate the net: I'm not a fan of tobacco companies, but the UN has no right to try to restrict advertising on the net. First they will start with tobacco because it is bad for you. Then they will go after other types of online advertising. The UN thinks their slick, but I know what they're all about............ By Stephanie Nebehay Fri Feb 17, 1:16 PM ET GENEVA (Reuters) - Health officials from more than 100 countries have agreed to study widening a global tobacco control treaty to target advertising over the Internet and satellite television, the World Health Organization said on Friday. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which came into force a year ago, bans advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products, blamed for five million early deaths a year. But officials from 113 countries, meeting in their first conference of the parties, which ended on Friday, found that the May 2003 pact failed to cover all cross-border advertising, senior WHO officials said. Tobacco will prematurely end the lives of 10 million people a year by 2020 if current trends are not reversed, the WHO says. There are currently some 1.3 billion smokers worldwide. Working parties will study legally-binding protocols to clamp down on cross-border advertising as well as illicit trade, and report back by mid-2007, the officials told a news briefing at the end of two weeks of talks. "The blindspot was identified that there are other forms of advertising coming from non-party states being beamed into parties -- Internet communication and sports sponsorship which maybe comes from satellite television," said Douglas Bettcher, coordinator of the WHO's Framework Tobacco Control Office. "There are complex technical issues that will have to be addressed to manage it, regulate it and obliterate it," he said. Dennis Aitken, head of the WHO director-general's office, said: "This is just the start of the protocol process, nobody committed yet to anything absolute. But the process has begun." Health officials also agreed that a new secretariat for international tobacco control will be based in Geneva with an initial two-year budget of $8 million, according to the WHO. "I am confident we are on track to save millions of lives in the near future thanks to this treaty," said Juan Martabit, Chile's ambassador who chaired the talks. But activists accused major cigarette makers of trying to slow the treaty's implementation in developing countries, their biggest markets. "From Africa to Latin America to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, we are hearing of attempts to interfere at the highest levels of government," said Kathryn Mulvey, executive director of the Washington-based group Corporate Accountability.
I hate to point out the obvious here, but the United Nations is not regulating anything. Representatives from participating States are getting together to form common goals in regards to this issue. The representatives account for about half of the world's states.
Maybe the tobacco companies can have some sort of free giveaways in all the muslim countries. Start a new advertising campaign, the marlboro man riding a camel. Push Joe Camels...
I don't see the huge deal with smoking. You should have the right to be stupid and kill yourself. If you smoke, you just have to sign a waiver that you will not sue the tobacco company and you will have to foot the medical bills later (no public funds for curing your cancer later on).
Smoking in private (or in a smoker's club) is fine by me. I don't think smoking in public should be allowed because it is not a controlled experience (example: you stand next to me and smoke, I get the the toxins in my environment). It sure would be nice if we would attack pollution in the air the way we attack smoking. Anyway, the WHO always meets to discuss health issues and ways to curb the carnage. It's not some U.N. conspiracy (lol). Basically, they are forming a single-issue government policy interest group and will attempt to lobby their government's to help reduce the effects of smoking on their populations.
I don't think they should even be talking about controlling advertising of tobacco on the net. What about all the billboards in major cities? Thats what I hate about the UN. They are all about going after small advertising businesses online, but won't talk about the offline advertisers. The are a bunch of trashy hypocrites.
Did you think about the fact that online advertising is a newer platform and that they have talked about offline advertising (like in mainstream magazines and newspapers) in the past? Also, did you research into what the panel is actually set up for?
They may have talked about controlling offline advertising in the past, but they never had an incentive to control it. For one thing, offline advertising is easy to control. How much does it cost to advertise on a billboard sign, or run a commercial during the superbowl? thousands to millions of bucks, right? Well, only the big corporations can advertise effectively offline, and they have the power to lobby to elected officials with their money. I haven't done an additional research on the panel, but we're talking about the UN for crying out loud. They have to be the most corrupt institution on the planet. The UN just had a meeting recenty in Tunis about gaining control over the net. I just started another thread about it. When I see an article on yahoo news entitled "UN targets tobacco advertising on Internet," I get extremely concerned. You and everyone else here at DP who values being able to make money online should be concerned to. The Pentagon just declassified at document under the FOIA about "fighting the net" and Bill Gates wants companies to start charging to send out emails. Am I the only one who can see there is about to an attempt a take over of the internet?
The Bill Gates charging for emails issue is around 7 years old now. You are a little confused on these matters (from what I have read). The United Nations is simply a vehicle for states to discuss matters and vote. What you have attempted to report on is a collaboration of states to work our a regime for tobacco advertising. If you think this is wrong, you should form a foreign policy public interest group and lobby our government to opt-out of the regime. It's that simple.